“Corporate tax reductions are critical to maintaining a competitive environment for manufacturers in Ontario. In light of ongoing economic uncertainty and volatility, the Government must stay the course on these important tax reforms.”
- Ian Howcroft, CME Vice President, December 21, 2011
QUEEN’S PARK – Dalton McGuinty is poised to break another election promise by buckling to political pressure over business taxes, Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak charged today.
“All signs point to the Premier abandoning a statutory commitment to cut business tax rates to 10 per cent by 2013,” Hudak said. “He can’t stop spending. He doesn’t know how to grow the economy. So he risks falling back on an old habit of breaking promises and hiking taxes.
"And no, this isn’t ‘semantics’ – cancelling a tax cut is a tax increase.”
Hudak noted NDP Leader Andrea Horwath has been pushing to raise taxes on employers, which forced a second response from Finance Minister Dwight Duncan in as many weeks that ‘I won’t speculate about taxes (in the spring budget).’
“So my message to the Premier today is, don’t be a pushover on job-killing business taxes – not with more than half a million Ontarians out of work and a deficit surging past $16 billion. And don’t blame the global economy for all this, because Ontario’s jobless rate has exceeded the national average since 2007 – well before the following year’s market meltdown.
“In fact, he should blame himself for hiking business taxes back in 2004. Over the next four years Ontario lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs.”
Hudak acknowledged that business taxes are an easy political target for the NDP and Liberals, bringing to their minds ‘corporate fat-cats’ and ‘rich shareholders’. “But think again,” Hudak cautioned. “Take a look at your RSPs, mutual or pension funds. Most contain a good proportion of publicly traded stocks, issued by many of the very companies the NDP would penalize in the midst of an economic downturn.”
Hudak said that the two-thirds of Ontarians with an RRSP hardly constitute “fat-cats” but in fact are mainly middle-income earners who have seen their retirement savings eroded during a volatile stock market and can’t handle more losses now.
“The Premier needs to understand this. He also needs to know that competitive taxes on employers are the best tool we have to attract investment and help Ontario companies thrive in a fiercely competitive global economy – while sustaining millions of good jobs.
“In short, Premier McGuinty, this is no time to go wobbly on business taxes.”
sarah.mcmaster@pc.ola.org
